jupe1407 wrote:He's got a point tbf. Being able to own/lease, run, insure and fuel a car for X amount of money then complaining that you can't afford a fiver once in a blue moon to park it for a hillwalk is nonsense. The charges in Wales are a bit mental and obviously designed to relieve tourists of money, however I don't think charges in Scotland are that unreasonable. £2 for Glen Doll for example, and £4 the last time I was at Glen Muick are hardly exhorbitant especially since both of these have facilities which need maintenance.
Are parking charges in Scotland really that big a deal? I've done nearly 400 hills including repeats, corbetts, grahams etc and i doubt I've even paid to park more than 10 times in 9 years.
That's a fair point Jupe and if it stayed like that it wouldn't be much of an issue. Arrochar car parks have started charging £9 for parking in the last couple of years. Are you happy for Glen Doll to do the same or what about £10 or even more?
The lakes down south are charging a fortune for parking, blatant profiteering which is not the way it is in the highlands. They had to bin the parking company that made £1000s out of issuing tickets. What's to stop Ben Nevis charging £40 a day like someone mentioned they do at Snowdon.
The NF car park is free at the moment. They could easily charge £10. Mountaineering Scotland have been very naive about this saying their members are happy to pay £3 or £4 a day which gives the green light for all car parks to charge. Argyll and Bute I'm sure were pleased to hear MS willing to pay £4 for parking but increased it from £1 to £9 anyway.
Keep the highlands free of these extortionate charges and don't encourage them!